Sex, College and Social Media: A Common Sense Guide to Navigating the Hookup Culture

What people are saying:

“Cindy Pierce delivered perhaps the most hilarious, informative and resonant performance I have seen since coming to Dartmouth. Her approach of addressing gender dynamics was neither self-conscious nor combative. She fully engaged everyone in the audience, both male and female.”– Keshav Poddar, Dartmouth College, Class of 2014

“Cindy has an uncanny gift of bringing closet subjects about sex and relationships into the open. She educates in a humorous manner. Cindy’s presentation is thought provoking and inspires discussion with a message that is not only beneficial to college students, but desperately needed.” – Josh Dooley, Dartmouth College, Class of 2006

“Students are still talking about your program. The term ‘healthy tribe’ really struck students, and they commented on the evaluations that they needed to find a ‘healthy tribe’ to encourage them to make better decisions…obvious to us, but the term ‘healthy tribe’ is what made is click with them.” – Kimberly Choleqinski, Health Education Coordinator, Old Dominion University.

In this informative and entertaining program, Cindy uses anecdotes and research to demystify sex, relationships, and the hookup culture. With unfiltered honesty, she addresses how media and porn culture skew sexual expectations. Cindy’s stories encourage students to look more closely at the role of alcohol and social media in decision-making and the obstacles to developing healthy relationships.

Cindy will help students put sex in a healthy context for those who want to make it a safe priority without letting it sabotage their emotional wellbeing. Students will walk away with safer and more realistic expectations about sex and relationships.

To book Cindy for a college appearance, contact Jill Friedlander at : jfriedlander@fourscoregroup.com or 617-934-2427

Cindy’s programs help a wide variety of groups to:

Gain awareness of how social media and our culture fuel feelings of sexual inadequacy

Find social ease by tuning into one’s Inner Compass

Create social life with a healthy and conscious balance between face-to-face interactions and through social media

Enlist and maintain a Healthy Crew of friends and anchoring adults to help navigate adulthood

Recognize how porn, gaming and media skew sexual expectations.
Reconsider the accepted and normalized social contract of getting drunk and hooking up

Audiences:
In addition to presenting to the students themselves, Cindy often speaks with faculty and educators about what they can do to help students with these issues.

The language in this keynote (or workshop) is frank and unfiltered. Although we wish everyone would listen to Cindy and take her lessons to heart, we don’t recommend this program for mandatory events or for audiences where people under 17 are present. A standard program is 60 minutes + Q&A, but can be customized to a time range of 45 – 90 minutes + Q&A.

A Note from the Speaker:
A big part of my message is the power of a healthy crew — trusted role models, siblings and friends with whom we can ask anything, get reliable information and we can practice social courage. My honest, open approach, combined with my absolute comfort with myself, is both disarming and inspiring for audience members. I create a safe environment where students can ask the most frank questions without feeling ashamed. My aim is provide information and perspective to help people navigate their social and sexual lives. By sharing facts and anecdotes, I dispel myths that have been passed along and reinforced through cultural messaging and social media.
More about Cindy Pierce:
Cindy Pierce is an educator and comic storyteller. She has been performing solo shows and providing educational programs since 2004. Combining humor and research, she enlightens people about the choices and obstacles impacting healthy sexual relationships. Cindy is the author of Sexploitation: Helping Kids Develop Healthy Sexuality in a Porn-Driven World and Sex, College and Social Media: A Common Sense Guide to Navigating the Hookup Culture. When Cindy is not speaking, she and her husband Bruce run Pierce’s Inn in Etna, N.H., and enjoy life with their three amazing kids.

Honored as one of New Hampshire Magazine Remarkable Women of the Arts, May, 2007

Subject of a documentary made by Dartmouth students: Good Vibes and Duct Tape: Stories with Cindy Pierce (2014)

Cindy’s recent speaking engagements include:

COLLEGES
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Bryant University
Bucknell University
California State University Northridge
Cedar Crest College
Champlain College
Clarion University
Colby College
Colby Sawyer College
Dartmouth College
Gillette College
Lambda Chi Alpha Stead Leadership Seminars
Longwood University
Mansfield University

Millikin University
Purdue University
Saddleback College
Sheridan College
Towson University
Union College
University of Central Florida
University of Connecticut
University of Delaware
University of Miami
University of Montana, Missoula
University of New Haven
University of Pennsylvania
University of St. Louis
Women of Dartmouth
(alum event in San Fran)

HIGH SCHOOLS
Avon Old Farms School
Baylor School
Berkshire School
Blair Academy
Branson School
Brewster Academy
Brooks School
Burke Mountain Academy
Campbell Hall
Cate School
Dana Hall School
Deerfield Academy
Doane Stuart
Dublin School
Forman School
Gould Academy
Green Mtn. Valley School
Groton School
Hathaway Brown School
Hawkin School
Hanover High School
Harwood Union H.S.
Hebron Academy
The Hill School
Holderness School
Hotchkiss School
Kent School
Kents Hill School
Kimball Union Academy
Laurel School
Lawrence Academy

Lawrenceville School
Loomis Chaffee School
Milton Academy
Moses Brown
The Mountain School
National Ski Academy, Ontario
Northfield Mount Herman School
Northwood School
Nueva High School, CA
Peddie School
Piedmont High School
Phillips Exeter
Proctor Academy
The Putney School
The Sharon Academy
South Royalton School
St. Paul’s School
Tabor Academy
Taft School
Thacher School
Thetford Academy
Tilton School
University School
Viewpoint
Walnut Hill School
Westminster
Williston Northampton
Woodstock Regional High School
Worcester Academy
Wyoming Seminary
YSC Academy